


After

by Gabri



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Deathbed, Gen, RotG Kink Meme, terminal illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 08:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabri/pseuds/Gabri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's in an excellent position to feed that fear, as it is, but even Pitch knows there will be little satisfaction is goading this pathetic mortal, who already has so little time left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the RotG kink meme. The prompt was Pitch being drawn in by a dying person's fear, and the person latching onto him as a last source of comfort.

It's obvious to Pitch why he was drawn here. The young man _oozes_ fear, although it's not the same fear he's used to receiving - those quick bursts, flashes of terror from nightmares, sinking pits of despair. No, this is something more gradual, twisted, and strangely enough, almost accepted.

He's in an excellent position to feed that fear, as it is, but even he knows there will be little satisfaction is goading this pathetic mortal, who already has so little time left. 

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again." the man says in a whisper-voice. His hair is shot with white, skin translucent and pale. "Thought you'd faded away. Jack says that most adults don't see you guys anyway..."

"Jack." Pitch repeats, quietly.

"Jack Frost....you, you don't remember me." he rasps on the heels of that, curling his fingers into white sheets. Pitch gives him a look. "I helped make you go away that night. Jack came, n' the Sandman came..." 

Oh, yes. The child, Jamie. Not so much a child anymore, of course.

"You'll forgive me for not following the mortal aging process - it's terribly uninteresting."

Jamie's mouth twists, eyes casting down again. There's a slight shiver to his shoulders. He looks quite delicate. Death will find him easy to take. 

"I'm..." he whispers, "I'm going to die. Like, really die. I'm...scared."

"Clearly you are, yes." Pitch agrees.

"I don't know what's going to happen." he continues. "I've read a lot of stories about what _could_ happen. But what's _going_ to happen? What's S-Sophie gonna do? Without me?"

It's quiet for a long moment. The machine the man seems to be attached to beeps annoyingly, beat by beat. It's nearly as maddening is the man's sudden will to spill his heart. His _heart._ What can Pitch do with _that?_ Jack should be here, really, or even Death herself. Pitch has no work in comfort and sweetness. 

He's beginning, slowly, to sink back into the shadows and take his leave, when Jamie cries out: "Wait!"

"I'm very busy." Pitch says thinly, but he returns to the boy's bedside, and Jamie fumbles out to grasp his sleeve. The gesture is - surprising. Pitch lets the shadows curl around his wrist idly, letting Jamie cling to the makeshift fabric of it as he fumbles for the right words.

"I don't want to be - alone."

"I assure you that nobody _does._ " The bitterness in his voice was not intentional. Jamie gives a little laugh and shakes his head. 

"Can you take my...my fear away?"

Pitch shakes his head, slowly. "Your faith has proved a powerful weapon in the past." he says. "Whatever happened to that?"

He gets a weak smile in return, releasing Pitch's arm. "I understand."

"Very well." He rises again, and once again Jamie speaks up:

"Jack says you're not..."

Pitch spares him a long-suffering look and folds his arms impatiently. When the man doesn't continue, he prods: "Not _what?_ "

"Not all...bad." Jamie looks hopeful. And Pitch hears it: the 'thank-you' that Jamie has tacked in there, invisible. Even as an adult, he's still such a child.

"I'll keep that in mind." Pitch drawls, and with effort, he removes himself at last from the cloud of darkness that makes up Jamie's sickbed. What happens from here, he cannot change.


End file.
